Fixed: When associating file types with Band-in-a-Box, the user would get the success message "File types are now registered for songs..." when the process failed.

Fixed: When unassociating file types with Band-in-a-Box, the user would get the success message "File types are now NOT registered for songs..." when the process failed.

Fixed: If opening a Band-in-a-Box song from Windows explorer, and specifically choosing the "Open" command instead of "Play", playback would start anyway.

Fixed: Band-in-a-Box might ask to associate file in Windows Explorer even if they are already set.

Fixed: Right-clicking on a Band-in-a-Box song in explorer and selecting play would not open the song.

Fixed: Associating file types only works if the exe is named "bbw.exe".

Fixed: Various Conductor hot keys were not working.

Fixed: Some number-pad keys were not working in the song memo.

Fixed: Toggling Loop Section with the 1 key would not display a message.

Fixed: With factory settings, it appears as if "Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth" is selected in the MIDI driver setup dialog even though it is not. The user might click Cancel because it appears that the driver is already selected.

Fixed: When in the MIDI driver setup dialog, clicking on Audio Settings should connect/disconnect MIDI drivers. Eg. the user might be attempting to connect to ASIO4ALL, which often does not work with the Microsoft GS Wavetable MIDI driver.

Added: In the PDF manual, clicking on the Bookmarks navigation pane, Table of Contents, or Index will jump to the corresponding page. (Note: To use the navigational elements, you need to open the PDF manual in Adobe Reader.)

Fixed: The RealTracks picker might freeze if using a custom RealTracks folder location, and this folder does not exist (eg. an external hard drive is not connected, or re-connected with a different drive letter).

Fixed: If using Windows 10, holding down the mouse anywhere in the chord sheet window and scrolling the mouse wheel would cause Band-in-a-Box to immediately crash.

Fixed: When saving MusicXML files, slurs would be rejected by other programs that opened the files.

Fixed: After performing a drag and drop, the previous state of soloed tracks was not restored.

Fixed: Drag and drop of audio track would render Bass track instead.

Fixed: When using multiple monitors, some popup windows would be forced onto the primary monitor (eg. changing song title, changing track label).

Fixed: When using multiple monitors, Band-in-a-Box would not properly open to the previous size, position, and maximized state.

Fixed: Previewing chords in the chord sheet (Shift+Enter) or using the chord builder would eventually stop playing all the notes in the chord if using the "always on" setting for the audio driver (MME or ASIO).

Fixed: Splash screen was missing if running program in any language other than English.

Fixed: If using a 3/4 style, Band-in-a-Box would switch to the ZZJAZZ style (4/4) when launching the Audio Chord Wizard. This would cause an incorrect tempo map to be made afterwards.

Improved: If making a tempo map after using the Audio Chord Wizard, and the current style has a different time signature, you will be asked to choose a different style. If possible, you can choose to keep the current style, but the time signature of each bar will be set for you.

Fixed: Automatic updates were sometimes not working

Fixed: Rendered WAV files would not be acidized if the option to normalize was enabled.

Added: Drums name is more descriptive in the drums panel of the mixer, e.g. saying "snare and high hat"instead of "snhh"

Fixed: The "ASIO Always On" setting for ASIO audio drivers was not working (ie MIDI output was silent if song not playing).

Fixed: The "Output always on" setting for MME audio drivers did not work for MIDI playback (eg. clicking on the pianos, chord previewing, notation editing, etc.). It only worked for triggering MIDI directly through plugin GUIs.

Fixed: In the Vocal Synth dialog, the vocalist selection was not sent correctly to the www.sinsy.jp server (eg. choosing Matsuo-P would use Xiang-Lang).

Changed: The new hot key for opening the Record MIDI dialog has been changed to CTRL+R.

Fixed: Strings might be missing on the main screen (eg any words on the mixer) if Band-in-a-Box was not run as administrator.

Fixed: Audio loops that are less beats than the time signature cause Band-in-a-Box to freeze while generating the song.

Fixed: Playing chords in the Chord Builder dialog did not show on the mixer pianos.

Improved: Playing consecutive chords in the Chord Builder dialog will have smoother sounding transistions.

Fixed: Using the right-click menu to mute or solo the Thru track would not apply to the right track.

Fixed: The Alt+2 hot key was not working for toggling mute for all tracks.

Fixed: In non-English versions, RealTracks that have not translated name (ie missing from RealTracksFolderNamesX.txt) should display the English title instead of the short RealTrack name. Eg. "1757:Accordion, Rhythm Pop8ths Ev 085" instead of "1757:Accordion, Rh Pop8ths Ev 085".

Fixed: Sforzando was not automatically added to the plugin list, so loading Hi-Q patches would not work unless the user previously added the .DLL to list manually.

Fixed: If erasing bar-based lyrics that were previously converted from line-based lyrics, the line-based lyrics would not be erased. This would cause the line-based lyrics to be converted to bar-based lyrics again the next time the song was opened.

Fixed: Some missing _wswing.sty demos.

Updated: Help file and Manual.

Fixed: Using Shift+Enter on the chord sheet to preview a chord would not produce any sound.

Fixed: In non-English versions, new RealTracks or MIDI SuperTracks would cause the track radios and mixer track labels to show numbers instead of proper names.

Fixed: In normal screen mode, the Transport and Views tool bars were not given priority when resizing the window smaller (ie they should be given more space than the Tools and Tracks tool bars).

Fixed: Some hints were not formatted properly, showing extra line breaks.

Fixed: The hot keys for muting tracks (eg. Alt+3) were not working.

Fixed: The hot keys for selecting the current track (eg. Ctrl+3) were not working.

Fixed: Switching tracks from another window (eg. Notation, Guitar, Big Piano) would not select the track radio or mixer panel.

Fixed: Songs with Artist Performance Tracks would have their audio base tempo reset when opened, and the tracks would play out of sync if the tempo was changed.

Fixed: StylePicker data corrections, including instrument displays.

Improved: Decibal offsets fine-tuned for many new (2017) RealStyles, and RealDrums.

The same modern, full-featured mixer is used in both GUI modes, and it can be undocked from the main toolbar (floating).

The floating mixer can be resized.

When resized to a larger size, there is a new Tone slider instead of just the dial.

The piano shows animated keys when moving the mouse over them.

The piano keys are velocity-sensitive. Clicking on the bottom of the key will play maximum velocity (127), and clicking on the top will play minimum velocity (30).

The Solo buttons do not effect the status of the Mute buttons anymore. When un-soloing a track, the previous Mute state of all the tracks will be returned. Also, when a track is virtually muted, it will display a different Mute button image than if it is actually muted.

Soloing a track can be additive or subtractive now by right-clicking or Shift-clicking. This means that more than one track can be Soloed. Left-clicking will cause the old behaviour: that track will be the only soloed track.

Fixed: After done editing text in the Bar Lyrics layer, the Section Text layer, or editing a chord (eg using CTRL+F2), the application would lose focus and not allow chord entry. This might also cause a "ding!" to be heard.

Fixed: The width/height of print preview and save to jpg is preserved, and ratio checkbox added.

Fixed: The bar numbers are now drawn below the staff in the case of printout or LS displaying a single clef bass track.

Updated: Help files and manuals.

Added: New Features button to the toolbars.

Fixed: Spurious 'rebuild' message each time StylePicker is opened in RealBand.

Summary of changes for Build 453 (since 452) (Dec 5, 2016):

Fixed: A full install with all available Band-in-a-Box content was showing a few Styles/Drums missing in the StylePicker.

Fixed: The styles M_CTRYSM.STY and M_CTRYSW.STY were producing error messages related to guitar macros for some customers.

Fixed: Style filter to show 2017 styles was showing 2016 styles.

Fixed: Any track with RealDrums, other than the Drums track, would be labeled "Loop".

Fixed: BeStPlain Chord Symbols font was not using various dedicated chord symbols (eg. C7b9) on the chord sheet.

Fixed: Clicking on the chord sheet when a popup menu was open could cause undesired cell selection.

Fixed: The dedicated [Open] button (mini-mode only) would open a popup menu instead of directly going to the file-open dialog.

Fixed: The dedicated [Save As] button (mini-mode only) would open a popup menu instead of directly going to the file-save-as dialog.

Fixed: When "Superscript chord extensions" was set to "auto", the entire bar would be superscripted whenever there were chords on consecutive beats, instead of treating each chord individually.

Fixed: The New Features button would open the wrong popup menu.

Fixed: Using the Options menu to Return To Factory Settings would cause the Custom panel to have no buttons in it.

Fixed: If the Custom panel button order is corrupted in anyway, it will be automatically detected and reset to defaults.

Fixed: If running the program in any language other than English, and a language patch was never installed, all of the main screen buttons would be blank.

Fixed: Sforzando was not automatically added to the plugin list, so loading Hi-Q patches would not work unless the user previously added the .DLL to the list manually.

Fixed: Error message removed "Track. Error in style, you need to Set StyleMaker-MISC-Guitar Macros Enable=true".Improved: Forced accidental entry and note type entry (normal, invisible, bend, etc.) both now use listboxes, so no pull down is required, and also now has a checkbox for making a bend displayed in notation window as quarter step below the target note.

Fixed: Notes at very start of a row in note roll were not visible.

Fixed: Wider than normal beat lines in note roll.

Updated: 2017 Help file updates.

Summary of changes for Build 452 (since 451) (Dec 2, 2016):

Fixed: If running the program in any language other than English, most of the main screen buttons were displaying in English. New buttons, and a few that have been altered will remain in English until official localized patches are ready.

Fixed: Using "L" in the chord sheet to loop bars was not working.

Fixed: "Separate files for each track" in the drop+ dialog did not work.

Fixed: After a drag and drop, the Audio track would appear to be muted even though it was not.

Fixed: The playback bar would not show the current bar.

Fixed: Clicking on playback bar would not select the current bar.

Fixed: The playback bar displayed some messy looking vertical lines.

Fixed: The 2017 upgrade manual was sometimes not found.

Fixed: The menu item "Help > Newest Features" was not opening the right help page.

Fixed: The menu item "Help > Help Topics > Tutorial Using the New Features of Version 2016" was not opening the right help page, and should say "2017".

Do you want to develop your pitch, rhythm, and melody recognition? Check out the great ear training games 'Music Replay' and 'Pitch Invasion' included with Band-in-a-Box® for Windows!

Access these when you select the Practice button in the program and choosing to "Launch" either of these from the menu that appears. You can also access these if you open the main "Practice Central..." selection from the same Practice menu. The Practice Window offers the user easy access to different Playalong features (like Soloing Trade 4's, Chord Breaks, Guitar Tutor, etc.), tempo adjustments, 101 Riffs, Ear Training games, and more!

What is Music Replay?
Music Replay focuses on developing three musical skills:Replay Note helps to develope pitch recognition skillsReplay Rhythm developes the ability to recognize and play different rhythms.Replay Melody combines Note and Rhythm - 1 bar melodies are played, and the user must play them back with the correct pitch and rhythm!

What is Pitch Invasion?
In the feel of a classic arcade game, "aliens" decent an your planet with the hopes of stealing your 15 instruments - and you can't let them! How do you destroy them? Match the pitch the alien is playing before it hits the ground! The more aliens you destroy, the faster they move! This challenging (and fun!) game also has an App available on iTunes.

For the latest blast from the past for Band-in-a-Box, check out the article The Software Story: Band-in-a-Box by Norm Weinberg, as published in the June 1993 issue of Percussive Notes!

Imagine a group of musicians who would rehearse with you whenever you wanted, wouldn't tire of playing the same songs over and over, could play at any tempo you wanted, could learn new tunes in a matter of minutes, and never have any ego problems? Wouldn't this be an ideal musical situation for gaining experience? Band-in-a-Box to the rescue!
-Norm Weinberg

Hot Keys are a great way to speed up using a lot of different programs... and that includes Band-in-a-Box®!

Band-in-a-Box has keystroke "hot keys" to mute instruments or to adjust volume, panning, reverb, chorus, or bank of instrument without using the mouse, etc... in fact - there are over 100 Hot Key commands for Band-in-a-Box® for Mac!

A feature added with our Band-in-a-Box® 2015 release was the option to Save as Video. This feature is easy to use! When you're ready to save your song within Band-in-a-Box®, choose "Save as Video..." and adjut the settings if you'd like, then choose [OK - Render Video]. Once it's rendered, you can select the [Upload to YouTube], or take a look at your video first when you choose [Show Video File]. You can also choose to open this video file up in a different video program - it's your video file!

What does the video show? The chordsheet within Band-in-a-Box® just as you'd see it when the song is playing - don't worry though, the rendering of the song to video is MUCH FASTER than the duration of the song!